Kromm's list of skills every adventurer ought to have

[Agemegos]

Some time ago, in a context I have forgotten, Kromm listed a set of skills he thought every adventurer (ie. PCs in most campaigns) ought to have. Could someone point me to that list please?

[sir_pudding]

Was it this?

[LordHelmet]

Originally Posted by Brett

Some time ago, in a context I have forgotten, Kromm listed a set of skills he thought every adventurer (ie. PCs in most campaigns) ought to have. Could someone point me to that list please?

I think you are looking for this one. But also this one could be handy.



Edit: Damm sir_pudding you beat me by 0,001 sec ;-)

[Celjabba]

http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...8&postcount=22

and
http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...97&postcount=4

Hope this help

Celjabba

EDit:
Sir Pudding and Lord Helmet win the race.
I should not have stopped to reread the posts :)

[Agemegos]

Aha! Tagged "essential skill".

Thank you both.

[Agemegos]

For reference:

Originally Posted by Kromm

Relying on defaults -- whatever the game system calls them -- is rarely fun. In GURPS, I hint that certain skills are necessary for adventurers, true action heroes or not, to keep the story flowing without annoying breaks caused by PCs being incompetent at tasks that adventure fiction commonly treats as "everyman" skills:

• Carousing, Diplomacy, Fast-Talk, or Interrogation -- Eventually, everybody wants to interrogate NPCs. I'm generous about what skills work, but some skill is required.
  
  
• Climbing, Hiking, and Stealth -- The party is only as good at these things as its worst party member, and nearly every party has to move around as a unit at some point.
  
  
• Driving or Riding -- Travel is vital to adventure, and while "every hero can drive/ride a horse" is often assumed, it isn't automatic in games that have skills for these things.
  
  
• First Aid -- Effective bandaging isn't an unskilled activity, AD&D notwithstanding. Non-action heroes often want to do this to "contribute" to party combat effectiveness, so they especially need this skill.
  
  
• Gesture -- Sooner or later, communication without making a sound will be vital to almost any party's survival.
  
  
• Observation, Scrounging, or Search -- Noticing interesting things takes training, and finding clues and useful items is so central to adventures that no PC should lack at least basic training here.
  
  
• Savoir-Faire or Streetwise -- Everybody came from somewhere. It's passing annoying when a player just assumes that her PC would "get on with folks in her element" without having any practical social skills to back up the assumption.

I further suggest -- strongly -- that action heroes have this list as well:

• Axe/Mace, Broadsword, Knife, Shortsword, or Staff -- Wielding a stick, knife, or heavy tool to any real effect requires practice. These common improvised weapons are not idiot-proof, trivial, or safe to use without training.
  
  
• Beam Weapons, Bow, Crossbow, or Guns -- However easy "point and shoot" looks, it's quite tough in reality. No credible action hero lacks competency at all ranged combat.
  
  
• Boxing, Brawling, or Karate -- Fisticuffs are the worst place to be untrained. Your fists are the only weapons you always have, so learn to use them.
  
  
• Forced Entry -- No, it isn't easy to kick in a door. Actually, unless you know how, you'll hurt yourself.
  
  
• Holdout -- "Concealable" equipment only works if you have skill at concealment, and frustratingly few players realize this.
  
  
• Judo, Sumo Wrestling, or Wrestling -- The number of people who think they should be able to grab others automatically is astounding. In fact, this is a difficult feat, trickier than hitting people, and absolutely requires training.
  
  
• Throwing -- Whether you're tossing spare magazines to friends or grenades at enemies, this is a trained skill, so it pays to know it.

I think that players would be far less unhappy about surprises if more GMs made lists like this and did everything possible to get players to take them seriously. A PC with Brawling, Fast-Talk, Forced Entry, Holdout, Knife, Scrounging, Stealth, and Wrestling should be able to make and conceal a shiv, overpower a guard, steal his clothes, sneak away from the scene, talk his way past the other guards, and leave through an inadequately bolted back door.

[dbm]

That's a fantastically useful list. I am planning a new campaign for relatively new GURPS players, so that will be circulated!

Cheers,
Dan

[Captain Joy]

Originally Posted by dbm

I am planning a new campaign for relatively new GURPS players, so that will be circulated!

I make use of them as Action and Adventure Lenses in my campaigns.

[Nymdok]

Originally Posted by Brett

For reference:<Insert Word of Kromm>

I generally encourage my players to take at least

1 Melee Skill
1 Ranged Skill
First Aid

There will always be combat in my games, and there will always be a use for First aid after combat.

Beyond that, I don't encourage everyone to take stealth and others because it blurs the niche specialization that my players enjoy.

I know now that most of the time when we play (regardless of genre), My son will be a Fighter, My daughter will be a Thief, and that they enjoy specializing in these roles. Encouraging BOTH of them to take Stealth or Secondary Melee skills sort of blurrs their discrete ideas of 'who should be good at what' and when is 'the camera' of the game on them.

Its worth noting that Niches can still be protected by skill LEVEL, and as campaigns go on its not uncommon for there to be some cross-teaching of skills.

Nymdok

[Kelly Pedersen]

Originally Posted by Nymdok

Beyond that, I don't encourage everyone to take stealth and others because it blurs the niche specialization that my players enjoy.

I think that's going overboard on the niche-protection, and would tend to lead to less-fun sessions. Certainly, it's fine for one character to have significantly better Stealth than the rest of the party. If their role is "the sneaky ninja", they can use high Stealth to sneak very close to enemies and make attacks from surprise, stand in the shadows and eavesdrop, etc. But if the rest of the party has no Stealth, the ninja will always be doing those tasks completely alone. They might as well leave everyone else behind when they sneak into a building, because otherwise the rest of the party will give them away by blundering about. That means that there'll be lots of situations where the group is split up, with the rest of the players hanging around while the stealth-guy gets all the attention on his sneaky mission.
And not having the rest of the party capable of coming along even limits the stealthy character's options. The classic "sneak up behind someone and launch a surprise attack" only works if there's few enough people around for the sneaky character to deal with after breaking surprise (often, this means they can only deal with one at a time, because sinking the points into stealth means skimping on the open-combat skills). If the stealth character can rely on his buddies helping to take out enemies, they're much more likely to go for the stealth attack in more fights.